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User blog:Safiye Choson/My opinions about Season 2.
I just finished Season 2 with "Redemption" ending. Overall, it was not that bad. But sadly, "not that bad" doesn't mean "is was great". And more sadly, it wasn't as good as I expected. But I finished this anyway, so I want to share some PROS and CONS I think about this game. Before you read further: 1. It's obvious that what I think is "pros" can be your "cons", vice versa, because this is MY opinion. 2. I hurried a bit to see the ending, so I could have missed some(or many?) details. PROS 1. Graphics and character animation Yeah, it's obviously improved. I don't have much to say about graphics, but my eyes enjoyed wonderful sceneries. And Sean's walking animation was amazing. I surprised at Riverside Cave scene of Episode 1 for the first time, because I could see all three logs Sean carried(In Season 1, Max magically put any items in her small bag). And his step in Nevada desert was truly amazing. I felt pity for him in no time! 2. Accompanying Daniel In most episodes, Sean went with Daniel. Daniel walked when Sean walked, ran when big brother ran, and many objects were the target of brothers' interaction. Chloe shared Max's adventure in Season 1 and Rachel shared Chloe's in BtS of course, but after the Season 2, I hesitate to say those girls were "together". One more thing, stat. page was AWESOME! 3. Mini-games There were many mini-games in Season 2 such as throwing snowball, playing dice game, cutting marijuana leaves, and many others as you know. Some of them wasn't fun to be honest, but having more rooms to intervene into the story was great. 4. Dynamic conversation-choices Some distracters were suddenly popped out in various situations(during walking or during playing mini-game for example), and some of them even had time limit. I want to call this "Dynamic" in comparison with Season 1 and BtS, and liked it. Although I couldn't make a decision in time for some questions. 5. Familiar slangs Some slangs I also heard at Season 1(such as "douche", "asshole", "dickhead") made me glad. Of course these could be a common things in US, but I learned these from Max and Chloe. 6. Returning of old characters This was in my "CONS list" before I played Episode 5. Because I worried David would take a huge role. But now I want to call him as "fitting cameo". I just finished this game so I don't know what David says when I choose "Sacrifice Arcadia Bay" at the beginning, but f*ck, it was glad to see Step-Ladder again. The only thing I'm worrying about is fanfics, which are already written, or will be written. I mean, who would've imagined Joyce and David are going to get divorced? And who could have imagined Chloe would change her hair color? This won't be a problem if we can ignore Season 2, but is this ignorable? Now, I feel sorry about the comic series... 7. Multi ending In previous games, there were only two endings, and it was decided by the last choice only. But there are four endings in this game, and it seems the last choice isn't the only variable. This motives players to play all over again. (Although I saw every endings with only one playthrough. Thanks, YouTube.:D) CONS 1. Lack of empathized character Let's start with very private thing. In Season 1 and BtS, I was totally empathized with Miss Blue(Or "Miss Green" now? :D), so I could see the world from her point of view without even trying. But sadly, there was no character such as her in Season 2, so I felt like I can't truly participate in the story, just watching it. 2. Unconvincing scenes The overall storyline was not that bad, but some scene didn't make sense I see. 1) Death of Esteban If my memory serves me well, Brett lied unconscious with some "blood" on his clothes, cop has arrived at the scene, two brothers were on the ground as ordered, Esteban came out, cop frightened, and shot. ......What the fluff?! I DO NOT THINK, and DO NOT BELIEVE this is what cops do. Any cop in his right mind would call other cops and 911 first, instead of shoot innocent. And if this case would be revealed as not a murder in this way, two brothers wouldn't have to take a road trip at all. (And I can't understand why anybody in this game didn't blame that stupid cop. I want to believe I missed this part) This was one of the most important scene, so I believe DONTNOD should have made more plausible story. 2) Puerto Lobos: the ultimate goal? If I remember rightly, the only reason Sean decided to reach Wolvesville was "This is where dad grew up", but so many years passed already(Sean mentioned Esteban attended to highschool in Wolvesville, but it was almost 30 years ago). People are moving time to time like Esteban you know, and I can't believe that every relatives in Mexico lives in the same village. (I think "Lone Wolf" ending and "Blood Brothers" ending support this, because we can't see any Diaz except the wolves in these scenes) In a short, I would oppose to Sean's plan if I were Daniel, because it wasn't convincing enough. 3) "Beaner"...? I mean the scene Chad and Mike appeared, and sorry, but this was nothing but a total bulls*it. Let’s compare this with Victoria's harassing Kate in Season 1. Even if we can ignore paper ball scene, she gave us some hints that she's an evil bee-atch in lines such as "Now you're totally stuck in the Retro Zone. Sad face.", "Now, why don't you go fuck your selfie?" and sexting prank. So I didn't surprised at all at shower room scene and dormitory roof scene in Episode 2. Kate's suicide attempt was extreme and I never agreed with it, but I fully understood that choice. But Chad and Mike popped out from the middle of nowhere, and beat Sean up "for no reason", as big brother said. I see why they put in this scene, but frankly, this was the most useless, meaningless, pointless in the whole series. I mean, why the hell they wanted to criticize so badly? "Go back to China, dog-eater." was not enough?! 4) The Vigilants Now sorry for my ignorance, but is there someone like "Vigiliants" in real life? I didn't think two brothers would cross the border that easily, but this scene was stupid. 3. Too many places In Season 1, Max visited same places for several times. So I could have enough time to be used to them, and finding difference from the last visit was another interesting point of the game. But in Season 2, every episodes took place in different places. This meant there was not enough time to explore each spot, so it was difficult to focus on the game. 4. Too many characters Well, my memory often bails on me, especially when I meet new people. I can't remember other's face and name until I meet him/her over and over again, and this was another reason it was difficult to focus on. When I finished TAAoCS, I expected Captain Spirit and Ms. Reynolds would be a major character in Season 2. And when I finished Episode 1, I bet two brothers would meet Brody again. But none of them were right. I met several new characters whenever I play new Episode, and it was difficult to remember some name like CassidyFinnHannahIngrid... What's worse, there were no character notes as you know. There were many minor characters in Season 1 too, but Max's notes gave me huge tips about which character is important or not. I see the reason why there were no notes, but my poor memory felt burdened... 5. Short diary, no cellphone One of many things I enjoyed in Season 1 and BtS was two girls' diary. It gave me another point of view to the events, and I laughed and smiled at many lines. But Sean's diary is much shorter than girls', so it contained little texts. I almost felt like the only purpose of Sean's diary was explaining the events between the episodes. (Of course there were many drawing in Sean's, but I didn't enjoyed them that much. I'm very particular about the paintings, maybe?) And I understood why that guy threw out his phone, but lack of text messages were disappointing, because this was another thing I enjoyed in previous games. "fuq that shit / elope" and "tin is Sn" still makes me smile whenever I read them. 6. No reversal in storyline When I heard the line "Alfred Hitchcock famously called film, "little pieces of time" ...", I knew he's bad guy, because I knew the whole storyline before I played. But the end of "Dark Room" was still shocking, and confrontation between Max and Jeffers*it was felt bad, but also tense. And in BtS, relation of Rachel and Rose was a surprise. But in Season 2, whole storyline was too obvious I think. Frankly, there were only a few moments I couldn't predict at all. 7. Lack of stunning screen direction In "Polarized", latter parts of Max's Nightmare(Two Whales Diner and Course of events scenes) were truly remarkable. Those made me think deeply about the final choice even after I finished the game, and I believe many of you were same with me. And in "Hell is Empty", seeing James and Sera's past through viewfinder was creative, although there was no reason to use viewfinder in this scene. But in "Roads", "Rules", "Wastelands", etc., there was no such a thing. I gave a clap to boiler room scene, finding treasure scene, and scene at the Mantroid's planet in TAAoCS, but Season 2 was below expectations. In a short: Season 1 - 8/10 BtS - 9/10 Farewell - 3/10 TAAoCS - 5/10 Season 2 – 5/10 for me. Aaaarcadia bay, forever! Category:Blog posts